Written Answers Friday 13 June 2008

Scottish Executive

Environment

Willie Coffey (Kilmarnock and Loudoun) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what work is taking place with the major supermarket chains to secure the adoption of biodegradable and compostable plastic bags.

Richard Lochhead: We are working with retailers to reduce the number of single-use carrier bags generally. I met retailers on 15 May to discuss this matter and it was agreed a working group should be established. This working group has its first meeting on 19 June and will discuss a variety of issues including public information campaigns on bags. We await with interest the views of the working group on the issue of biodegradable and compostable bags. This is not a straightforward issue and there is some evidence to suggest that biodegradable bags going to landfill can generate methane, a greenhouse gas and that they can also contaminate the recycling stream for conventional plastic bags.

Ferry Services

Jim Tolson (Dunfermline West) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive how much public sector funding was invested to establish the Rosyth to Zeebrugge ferry service.

Stewart Stevenson: Public funding totalling £11,381,628 was provided to establish the Rosyth to Zeebrugge ferry service. This comprised an award of Freight Facilities Grant of £10,968,529 to Forth Ports and an additional £413,099 provided to Superfast Ferries in 2001-02.

  The infrastructure created will be available to other companies operating from Rosyth.

Fisheries

Mike Rumbles (West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive whether its expert panel on alternatives to the common fisheries policy has consulted, or plans to consult, the North Atlantic Seafood Forum.

Richard Lochhead: I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-13727 on 11 June 2008. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search .

Fisheries

Mike Rumbles (West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive when it expects its expert panel on alternatives to the common fisheries policy to report to the Scottish Fisheries Council.

Richard Lochhead: I expect the expert panel to reach its conclusions in summer 2009 at which time the report will be available to the Scottish Fisheries Council. I will make an announcement on membership of the panel in due course.

Housing

Johann Lamont (Glasgow Pollok) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what the average rent is per week for housing association properties in Scotland.

Stewart Maxwell: Statistics on Scottish Registered Social Landlords are published by the Scottish Housing Regulator. The most up to date information on housing association rents was provided in the Review of Scottish Registered Social Landlords 2006-07, which gave the average weekly secure rent of Scottish housing associations in 2006-07 as £51.76. It is available on the Scottish Housing Regulator’s website at:

  http://www.scottishhousingregulator.gov.uk/stellent/groups/public/documents/webpages/shr_reviewofscottishregistered.pdf.

Housing

Johann Lamont (Glasgow Pollok) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has on the average rent per week for housing association properties in England.

Stewart Maxwell: The Scottish Government does not collect information about weekly rents for housing association properties in England. This information is available in table 6.3 of Housing Statistics 2007, published by the Department for Communities and Local Government and available at: http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/housing/housingstatistics2007 .

Housing

Patricia Ferguson (Glasgow Maryhill) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it accepts all of the conclusions of the housing regulator’s assessment of the Mazars report into second stage stock transfer in Glasgow.

Stewart Maxwell: The Scottish Housing Regulator’s report provides an independent assessment of the Mazars report and clearly sets out areas that require further exploration.

Housing

Patricia Ferguson (Glasgow Maryhill) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive at what pace it believes that progress towards second stage stock transfer in Glasgow should move.

Stewart Maxwell: Progress is already being made, and it is for Glasgow Housing Association and the local housing organisations to agree realistic timescales.

  We are clear that we want to see second stage transfer take place where it can be sensibly achieved and in that regard our aim remains unchanged: to give tenants an early opportunity to choose their future landlord at a ballot.

Housing

Patricia Ferguson (Glasgow Maryhill) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what action it will take as a result of the housing regulator’s assessment of the Mazars report into second stage stock transfer in Glasgow.

Patricia Ferguson (Glasgow Maryhill) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what action it considers that the Glasgow Housing Association should now take as a result of the housing regulator’s assessment of the Mazars report into second stage stock transfer in Glasgow.

Stewart Maxwell: Ministers have met with Glasgow Housing Association and the Glasgow and West of Scotland Forum. Both organisations have agreed to take forward discussions on the areas for further exploration indentified in the regulator’s assessment, with the other local housing organisations involved in second stage transfer. The clear objective is to achieve a common understanding and an agreed way forward.

Local Authorities

Johann Lamont (Glasgow Pollok) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether, in the event of there being no written evidence that equality impact assessments have been carried out by local authorities on their draft single outcome agreements, these draft agreements will not be signed off by the Scottish Government.

Johann Lamont (Glasgow Pollok) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether, in the event of there being no written evidence that equality impact assessments have been carried out by local authorities on their draft single outcome agreements, these draft agreements will be referred back for this process to take place.

John Swinney: It is intended that single outcome agreements (SOAs) will develop over time and equality impact assessments will be part of that process. The Scottish Government would not delay signing off an SOA at this stage because the EQIA is not complete. However, we are emphasising to councils and Community Planning Partnerships their responsibilities in relation to the public sector equality duties, in particular toward 2009-10 when we expect SOAs will include Community Planning Partnerships.

Marine Environment

Robin Harper (Lothians) (Green): To ask the Scottish Executive what work is being done to establish the cause and exact volume of the recent oil spills from Talisman Energy (UK) Ltd’s Beatrice Alpha platform.

Robin Harper (Lothians) (Green): To ask the Scottish Executive what measures will be taken to ensure that oil spills will be avoided from the Beatrice Alpha platform in future.

Robin Harper (Lothians) (Green): To ask the Scottish Executive what work is being done to assess the damage done by the two recent oil spills from the Beatrice Alpha platform.

Richard Lochhead: Under the Scotland Act 1998, matters relating to oil and gas, including offshore installations and pipelines, are reserved. However, I understand that in response to two recent incidents involving the discharge of crude oil in produced water from the Beatrice Alpha platform that the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) are investigating the incidents. As a consequence BERR have taken enforcement action in line with the Offshore Petroleum Activities (Oil Pollution Prevention and Control) Regulations 2005.

Marine Environment

Robin Harper (Lothians) (Green): To ask the Scottish Executive what measures are being taken to limit and clean up the recent oil spill from the Beatrice Alpha platform and what observable degree of success has been achieved by such measures so far.

Richard Lochhead: The initial clean up of oil coming ashore as a consequence of the spill in question was co-ordinated by the Highland Council. However when it was established that the oil had come from Beatrice Alpha platform, Talisman Energy (UK) Ltd took over responsibility for arranging the clean up and contracted Oil Spill Response Limited (OSRL) to undertake the removal of the oil, which was in the form of small tarry lumps, coming ashore on successive tides. Highland Council has advised that as far as they are aware all oil observed on beaches is being successfully removed by OSRL.

NHS Waiting Times

Dr Richard Simpson (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how many patients appealed against the decision to remove them from waiting lists for reasons listed in WT28 codes 37, 38, 40 and 41.

Nicola Sturgeon: Information on appeals against decisions to remove patients from waiting lists is not collected centrally. We are not aware of any appeals that have been made or indeed any complaints received. There are a number of safeguards that protect the interests of patients in relation to their position on hospital waiting lists.

  I have made clear that patients will be able to ask, at any time, to see the waiting time information held by their local NHS board about them and if necessary to have that information corrected. The Independent Advice and Support Service are also available to support patients or their representatives in making representation to NHS boards about any aspects of hospital care including their removal from a waiting list.

  The NHS in Scotland already has a well established formal complaints procedure in place. Information on the number of complaints made and the issues raised, including waiting times, is published annually. It will not be possible to separate complaints relating to the operation of New Ways from complaints about other aspects of waiting times.

  The New Ways guidance sets out the rule around the removal of patients from the waiting list and it makes clear that the GP and the patients must be informed. We would normally expect that the reasons for removal from a waiting list are discussed and agreed between the clinician and the patient. Where patients are returned to the care of their GP they can of course be re-referred once they are available for hospital care.

NHS Waiting Times

Dr Richard Simpson (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether patients who did not attend for a scheduled appointment but reported subsequently, after presenting reasonable grounds for original non-attendance, have had their waiting time clock stopped, reset to zero or were removed from the list completely and sent back to the GP for a new referral.

Nicola Sturgeon: The information requested is not available centrally.

  Published national guidance on the management of waiting lists states that if a patient does not attend on the agreed date then the patient would be recorded as a "Did Not Attend" and their waiting time clock re-set to zero. The health care professional responsible for treating the patient can decide whether to refer the patient back to the care of their GP or to offer another appointment. However, hospitals have the discretion based on the individual patient’s circumstance to offer the patient a new appointment quickly.

  The guidance also makes clear that the patient and the patient’s GP should be informed if a decision is made to return a patient to the care of their GP. The GP can of course re-refer the patient.

Pre-School Education

Gil Paterson (West of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many nursery teachers are employed in the West Dunbartonshire Council area.

Adam Ingram: There were 9.5 whole-time equivalent General Teaching Council for Scotland registered teachers providing pre-school education in West Dunbartonshire Council as at September 2007.

Pre-School Education

Gil Paterson (West of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many nursery teachers are employed in the East Dunbartonshire Council area.

Adam Ingram: There were 30.2 whole-time equivalent General Teaching Council for Scotland registered teachers providing pre-school education in East Dunbartonshire Council as at September 2007.

Pre-School Education

Gil Paterson (West of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many nursery teachers are employed in the Inverclyde Council area.

Adam Ingram: There were 23.6 whole-time equivalent General Teaching Council for Scotland registered teachers providing pre-school education in Inverclyde Council as at September 2007.

Pre-School Education

Gil Paterson (West of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many nursery teachers are employed in the Renfrewshire Council area.

Adam Ingram: There were 33.4 whole-time equivalent General Teaching Council for Scotland registered teachers providing pre-school education in Renfrewshire Council as at September 2007.

Pre-School Education

Gil Paterson (West of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many nursery teachers are employed in the East Renfrewshire Council area.

Adam Ingram: There were 34 whole-time equivalent General Teaching Council for Scotland registered teachers providing pre-school education in East Renfrewshire Council as at September 2007.

Pre-School Education

Gil Paterson (West of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many nursery teachers are employed in the North Lanarkshire Council area.

Adam Ingram: There were 64 whole-time equivalent General Teaching Council for Scotland registered teachers providing pre-school education in North Lanarkshire Council as at September 2007.

Rail Network

Aileen Campbell (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-13201 by Stewart Stevenson on 5 June 2008, what information it holds on closed or unoperational train stations.

Stewart Stevenson: Transport Scotland does not hold any information on closed or unoperational stations.

  Information on non-operational stations and their locations would not be relevant to any case for re-opening or constructing stations in the future.

  Scotland’s railways directs policy on the criteria which require to be met for the location of new stations.

Rural Development

Karen Gillon (Clydesdale) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how much of the current level of voluntary modulation it considers to be efficiency savings.

Richard Lochhead: All of the funds raised through voluntary modulation are considered to be efficiency savings.

Rural Development

Karen Gillon (Clydesdale) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what the level of voluntary modulation would have been if it had not decided to use voluntary modulation as a way of achieving efficiency savings.

Richard Lochhead: The level of voluntary modulation would have been the same.

Rural Development

Karen Gillon (Clydesdale) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how funding identified as efficiency savings as a result of voluntary modulation has been reallocated.

Richard Lochhead: All funds resulting from voluntary modulation will be made available to help fund the Scotland Rural Development Programme.

Rural Development

Karen Gillon (Clydesdale) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive why it considers that it is appropriate to move money from Pillar 1 to Pillar 2 in the Scottish Rural Development Programme in order to achieve efficiency savings and therefore remove direct support to Scottish farmers.

Richard Lochhead: Voluntary modulation enables the Scottish Government to transfer money from Pillar I of the CAP to Pillar 2 in order to augment the low funding level of Rural Development funding that Scotland receives from the European Commission, as a result of the deal accepted by the UK Government. The efficiency savings allow the same level of benefits to be delivered under Pillar I through cross-compliance whilst making resources available to deliver on Scottish Government outcomes through the Scotland Rural Development Programme.

Rural Development

Karen Gillon (Clydesdale) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it consulted NFU Scotland before using voluntary modulation as an efficiency saving to Scottish Government budgets.

Richard Lochhead: Stakeholders in the Scotland Rural Development Programme were consulted over the rates of voluntary modulation, but were not consulted about the classification of voluntary modulation as an efficiency saving.

Rural Development

Karen Gillon (Clydesdale) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive which elements of the Scottish Rural Development Programme involve competition.

Richard Lochhead: The Scotland Rural Development Programme (SRDP) has nine delivery mechanisms, namely the Less Favoured Area Support Scheme (LFASS); Rural Development Contracts (Land Managers Options); Rural Development Contracts (Rural Priorities); Crofting Counties Agricultural Grant Scheme (CCAGS); Food Processing, Marketing and Co-operation Grants; Skills Advice; LEADER; the Forestry Challenge Fund, and Woodlands in and Around Towns. Of these mechanisms, all but LFASS, CCAGS and Land Managers Options are competitive.

Rural Development

Karen Gillon (Clydesdale) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how allocations made under the Scottish Rural Development Programme will be monitored.

Richard Lochhead: Monitoring of the Scotland Rural Development Programme will be undertaken by a Programme Monitoring Committee consisting of rural development stakeholders, and officials from the Scottish Government and its partners.

Rural Development

Karen Gillon (Clydesdale) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether allocations made under the Scottish Rural Development Programme will be made available by regional area.

Karen Gillon (Clydesdale) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether allocations made under the Scottish Rural Development Programme will be broken down by region and policy measure.

Richard Lochhead: Funding allocations within the Scotland Rural Development Programme (SRDP) are made according to four axes defined in the Rural Development Regulation (EC Regulation 1698/2005). These four axes cover business development, the countryside and environment, rural communities and LEADER. In addition, the SRDP shows an indicative financial breakdown for 29 specific policy measures within these axes. While there are no regional allocations, some funding is regionally based - this includes the Crofting Counties Agricultural Grant Scheme and the Less Favoured Area Support Scheme.

Rural Development

Karen Gillon (Clydesdale) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether allocations made under the Scottish Rural Development Programme will be broken down by category of applicant.

Richard Lochhead: In general, allocations made under the Scotland Rural Development Programme are not broken down by category of applicant. However, some measures and eligibility criteria are aimed at specific groups such as new entrants, crofters or those engaged in organic farming.

Rural Development

John Scott (Ayr) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether the application process to the Scottish Rural Development Programme has now been fully implemented.

Richard Lochhead: The Scotland Rural Development Programme is being delivered through eight different funding mechanisms: the Less Favoured Areas Support Scheme, Food Processing, Marketing and Co-operation, the Crofting Counties Agricultural Grant Scheme (CCAGS), Skills Development, Forestry Challenge Funds, LEADER, Rural Development Contracts Land Managers’ Options and Rural Development Contracts Rural Priorities. Each of these mechanisms has its own application process and they are all now all now underway.

  In relation to the rural priorities mechanism, this has been designed with a two stage application process. The first stage was launched on 7 April 2008 and the second stage will be open to full proposals from 7 July 2008.

Rural Development

John Scott (Ayr) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how many applications it has received to the Scottish Rural Development Programme and, of these, how many have been (a) accepted or (b) rejected.

Richard Lochhead: Rural Development Contracts – Rural Priorities opened for first stage applications on 7 April 2008. The second stage of the application process is due to open on 7 July 2008 and the first assessment round will be held later this summer. As a result, we have received no full applications as yet and no applications have been accepted or rejected.

  It should be noted that Rural Priorities is only one of the eight mechanisms that is being used to deliver the Scotland Rural Development Programme.

Special Advisers

George Foulkes (Lothians) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how many and which of its special advisers have legal qualifications.

John Swinney: Two of the current Special Advisers, Professor Sir Neil MacCormick and Duncan Hamilton, have legal qualifications.

Special Advisers

George Foulkes (Lothians) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive which of its special advisers give legal advice to ministers.

George Foulkes (Lothians) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether ministers have received any legal advice from special advisers in respect of (a) the Scottish Futures Trust, (b) local income tax, (c) firearms or (d) any other issue.

John Swinney: Special advisers provide policy advice, not legal advice. The role of a special adviser is to help ministers on matters where the work of government and the work of the party overlap and it would be inappropriate for permanent civil servants to become involved. They provide policy, political and presentational advice and support to ministers. Professor MacCormick is the First Minister’s adviser on Europe and external relations and Duncan Hamilton is his political adviser.

Waste Management

Robin Harper (Lothians) (Green): To ask the Scottish Executive what powers it has to ensure that local authorities do not exceed targets set for the maximum amount of incineration of biological municipal waste in 2010, 2013 and 2020.

Richard Lochhead: We intend to include our 25% limit for energy from waste technologies for treating municipal waste by 2025 in the National Planning Framework, at both a national and regional level.

Waste Management

Robin Harper (Lothians) (Green): To ask the Scottish Executive what sanctions will be imposed on local authorities if they exceed targets set for the maximum amount of incineration of biological municipal waste in 2010, 2013 and 2020.

Richard Lochhead: We are working in partnership with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities and individual local authorities to achieve shared policy aims. As I have indicated, we will include our 25% limit for energy from waste technologies for treating municipal waste by 2025 in the National Planning Framework, at both a national and regional level.

Waste Management

Robin Harper (Lothians) (Green): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any formal or voluntary agreement with local authorities in respect of targets for 2010, 2013 and 2020 limiting the amount of municipal waste used for generating energy.

Richard Lochhead: No such agreements exist. However, in my statement to parliament on the 24 January I made it quite clear that I would apply a 25% cap on the amount of municipal waste sent to energy-from-waste facilities and that this cap would be incorporated, in due course, into the National Planning Framework.

Correction

The reply to question S3W-4194 which was originally answered on 21 September 2007, has been corrected: see page 3617 or http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/pqa/wa-08/wa0611.htm.

  The reply to question S3W-13637 which was originally answered on 11 June 2008, has been corrected: see page 3619 or http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/pqa/wa-08/wa0612.htm.